Friday, March 03, 2017

Workers
in the gig economy are missing out on important protections,
including the minimum wage, sick pay and holiday pay.

Frank
Field, who chairs of the Commons work and pensions committee, said“A
group of companies now controls the working lives of an unknown
number of people, and yet evades its own responsibilities as
employers and taxpayers by labelling those people as self-employed.”

DPD
parcel couriers deliver 1.6m parcels a week in Britain. They
deliver parcels for the likes of Marks & Spencer, River Island,
John Lewis and Amazon. DPD uses about 5,000 couriers in the UK, many
of whom are self-employed and are only paid when they work. It made
more than £100m in profit in 2015, according
to its latest accounts,
amid rapidly rising demand for online shopping.

The
couriers face being charged £150 a day if they cannot find cover
when they are ill. Drivers told the Guardian the contractual threat
meant they sometimes forced themselves to work when sick. Earnings
lost from missing a day’s deliveries were compounded if couriers
could not arrange cover and DPD levied “liquidated damages”. When
that happened a courier, who typically earns £200 a day, not only
lost their pay but another £150, taking their total loss to £350.